


But I am willing to wait, dear

by harringrovecryptid



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Gen, Steve Harrington Needs a Hug, brief harringrove reference if you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-02
Updated: 2019-11-02
Packaged: 2021-01-18 15:53:49
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,168
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21279314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/harringrovecryptid/pseuds/harringrovecryptid
Summary: It has been two days since Starcourt was destroyed. But more importantly, it has been two days since anyone has seen Steve.Setting their messy history aside, Tommy and Carol go to the Harrington residence in search of their ex-friend.
Relationships: Carol & Tommy H. & Steve Harrington, Tommy H. & Steve Harrington
Comments: 7
Kudos: 258





	But I am willing to wait, dear

**Author's Note:**

> Rome wasn't built in a day, kid.  
You have to pay, kid, for what you get.  
But I am willing to wait, dear,  
Your little mate, dear, will not forget.
> 
> I can't give you anything but love, baby.  
That's the only thing I've plenty of, baby.

When Tommy was five, he wanted a puppy.

He’d begged and bargained with his mom. Promising he’d be an absolute angel for the rest of his life if she’d just let him have a dog. Not even a special one. They could go down to the pound and find the cheapest one there.

He’d promised to love it and feed it and take care of it forever. And if it ever got lost or ran away, he’d bring it back home and make sure it was safe.

But his mom said no.

She said they didn’t have the money. That a puppy was a lot of responsibility. And that he’d get tired of it after a while.

Tommy thought she was wrong, but once his mom had her mind set there wasn’t much you could do to change it.

And then Tommy met Carol. He really really liked her, and would help her climb the monkey bars and stand at the bottom of the tall metal slide so she wouldn’t fall and hurt her hands on the gravel rocks when she came down.

All the parents who saw them on the playground called it puppy love. He didn’t know what that meant. But he liked that they used the word puppy.

And then a few days later they met Steve. 

He was standing all alone by the swing set, and Carol just ran up to him and began patting his thick wild hair.

Steve looked at Tommy in confusion, but he didn’t try to pull away either.

“It’s soft.” Carol cooed. “Like a puppy!”

That was all it took for Tommy to reach out and touch the other boy’s hair. It was very soft, like what Tommy imagined a Small Munsterlander’s ears might feel like (he knew this because he’d looked through a lot of dog books).

They dragged Steve around for the rest of the day, pulling him down the slides with them and rolling down the big grassy hill next to the park together. Inevitably one of Tommy or Carol's hands would come back to Steve's hair.

From that point on, they were a trio.

Growing up together into what sometimes felt like a collective conscious shared between three bodies. A side effect of growing up so close their entire lives. They were able to read each other in a way that unnerved even their parents.

When Tommy was sick, Carol and Steve would both find themselves crawling through his window to keep him company.

When Carol's parents would fight, Tommy and Steve would come by with their allowance money and drag her to the movies.

And when Steve's parents left him home alone for days, Tommy and Carol would show up with pillows and blankets asking if they could sleepover.

Rarely were those kinds of moments planned.

They just knew when they needed each other.

It wasn't the kind of connection you could just turn off or forget about.

It had been two days since the mall was blown up or invaded by Russia or whatever. No one had quite figured out all the details yet. 

But Tommy didn’t care about that. 

The rest of Hawkins could connect the dots. He'd hear about it eventually.

All he cared about was the fact that no one had seen Steve since what happened at Starcourt.

Sure, they hadn't been on speaking terms since Steve chose Nancy over him and Carol. And yeah, once Wheeler fought with and promptly cheated on Steve last Halloween, Tommy was half-expecting him to come crawling back to them. They would have given him a hard time at first, but he and Carol would have been happy to stitch poor little Steve's heart back together.

Only, Steve never did. And Tommy was still too hurt and stubborn to be the first to extend that proverbial olive branch.

But that was almost a year ago now, and Tommy's worry was beginning to outweigh his pride.

Steve would occasionally lay low when something was wrong, but he always managed to make some kind of public appearance to avoid rumors from spreading around school.

Except they weren't in school anymore, and the rest of Hawkins was way too preoccupied with how a good percentage of their population just up and disappeared on the Fourth of July.

And maybe that's what was bothering Tommy, he thought to himself as he slowly made his way up the driveway to Steve's house. 

Maybe he was a little scared that Steve had disappeared too, and no one noticed or cared. Sure, he'd seen him after the mall imploded, chasing after the ambulance that had driven Chief Hopper and Billy Hargrove to the hospital. But that didn't mean Steve couldn't have disappeared after. They still didn't know what made the rest of Hawkins vanish, and Steve's parents probably wouldn't even notice he was gone for a least a month.

"Hey." Tommy looked over his shoulder as Carol walked up behind him.

"Hey." He answered back. "What are you doing here?"

"Same as you probably." Carol shrugged, letting Tommy throw an arm around her shoulders and pull her close. "I just… had a feeling."

"Me too." Tommy said as he knocked on the front door.

It was a little odd coming back to this. Standing in front of their ex-friend's front door because they had a _feeling_.

A feeling that continued to grow with every passing minute that no one answered the door.

"His parents probably aren't home." Carol offered. 

But that wasn't a surprise. Steve's parents were always gone. It was fun and exciting when they were kids and didn't have to worry about grown-ups interrupting their games. But as the years passed it became more depressing. 

It meant that more often than not, when Steve needed help, he ended up handling things on his own.

Tommy nudged the rock on the doorstep, revealing the house key Steve had hidden there for them.

"I'm surprised he didn't move it." Carol said as Tommy stooped to pick it up.

Maybe this was Steve's own kind of olive branch. Never quite closing the door on their friendship.

Or maybe that's just what Tommy wanted to believe.

Without a word he inserted the key and turned the knob.

The Harrington residence was somehow even more lifeless than Tommy remembered it being.

The walls were still lined with paintings. But with not a single family portrait in sight, the place had a total lack of personality. 

This could have been anyone's house.

It never really did feel like Steve's.

"Hello?" Carol called out, her voice echoing off the walls.

No answer.

They moved deeper into the house. Carol detangled her hand from Tommy’s and began to trail up the staircase while he glanced into the living room.

There were a bunch of blankets and pillows on the couch, reminding Tommy of a sleepover. They always used to collect every soft thing in the house and make a pile for them all to sleep in, cuddled up against each other. Those kind of things comforted Steve. It probably made him feel less alone or forgotten.

Guilt twisted his stomach into an ugly knot. They really should have checked on Steve the night the mall wrecked. They should have done a lot of things sooner.

“Tommy!” Carol hissed from upstairs.

All the worst-case-scenarios began running through Tommy’s head as he began running to the second floor. 

He imagined them finding Steve’s body. Cold, inhumanely pale, and completely forgotten until just now.

Or maybe Carol stumbled across a horrible sign that something terrible had happened and Steve was missing and maybe if anyone had noticed sooner, they’d have a chance of figuring out what happened…

Tommy felt a lump form in his throat when he found Carol standing outside the bathroom door. He considered not going in at all. Not wanting his eyes to supply images that his mind was already picturing.

Carol was the one to urge him forward. She didn’t look frightened or in shock. So, whatever was in there couldn’t be too awful.

The bathroom lights were off, but Tommy could still make out the small room. There was no blood he could see. In fact, it looked barely lived in at all.

The only thing standing out amidst the white countertops and tile was the nail-ridden baseball bat leaning against the tub.

Tommy glanced worriedly at Carol, but she was still staring at the bathtub. He followed her gaze until he caught sight of a familiar head of hair barely visible over the rim. 

He flicked on the lights, and Steve didn't move.

Tommy would be panicking right now if he hadn't noticed the steady rise and fall of Steve's chest as he and Carol approached the tub.

Both their knees were pressed to the side of the tub before either of them thought to say anything. Steve just looked so small. He was curled up in a ball, wearing a pair of baggy sweatpants and an old t-shirt. Tommy could see his eyes quickly moving beneath his lids and his lips were twitching like he was trying to talk.

“Steve?” Carol finally spoke. Her voice bounced off the tiled walls, but he didn’t act like he’d heard them.

She turned to Tommy. “How long do you think he’s been like this?”

Tommy stared at the bruises that mottled Steve’s face. There was a good about of cuts and broken skin, most of which still had dried blood caked around the edges.

“Probably since the mall.” Which made him nervous, because that had been a couple days now. Steve clearly wasn’t taking care of himself, and Tommy’s blood began to boil thinking about the fact that no one had cared enough to check on him before now.

However, his anger subsided when he remembered that he was also one of those people.

Carol knelt next to the tub, and Tommy found himself sinking down with her.

She reached out a hand and hesitantly brushed some strands of hair out of Steve’s face.

“Steve.” She tried again, a little softer this time.

The response was almost instant.

Steve shot up, trying to find purchase in the smooth tub and only succeeded in knocking his head against the tiles on the opposite wall. His eyes were wide and shining with fear as they tried to locate a threat and wake up at the same time.

Neither Tommy nor Carol moved, afraid that they'd spook him if they did.

He looked worse now that Tommy could get a good look at him.

Half of Steve's face was completely discolored, and his eye (or what Tommy could see of it) was red.

After a moment Steve's heavy breathing began to slow. Every rise of his chest came with a painful wince.

He blinked once more. "Tommy? Carol?"

"Yeah Steve. It's us." Carol answered.

He looked unconvinced. 

"What are you doing here?" His eyes kept darting to the shadows behind them, as if he was expecting something to jump out at them. 

Tommy followed Steve's gaze over his own shoulder. There was nothing there. But it made him wonder if Steve had been seeing things. If he had another concussion, there was a good chance his mind was messing with him.

"We came to see if you were okay." Tommy said slowly, turning back to Steve. "No one's seen you in a couple of days."

Steve kept staring into the dark. Like they weren't really here. Like he was expecting them to disappear.

"Steve, have you gone to the hospital?" Carol asked. She was probably picking up on the same things Tommy was.

"They kicked me out."

Tommy and Carol looked at each other in confusion.

"What do you mean?" Tommy pressed.

"I wasn't family. So they wouldn't let me stay with him."

"Steve," Carol spoke, "did you let any of the doctors look at _you?"_

His eyes clouded for a moment, as if confused by her question. But he still wasn't looking at them.

He shook his head.

Tommy reached out and rested his hand on Steve's own.

That seemed to jolt his attention back to them. Steve snapped his head towards Tommy's hand, staring at it like it might bite. His gaze slowly drifted up to look him in the face.

"Tommy?"

Tommy stared back, wondering just how out of it his childhood friend really was. "Yeah, it's me."

Dark brown eyes widened in surprise as Steve stared between Tommy and Carol.

"You're really here." He said, seemingly more to himself than either of them. "Why are you here?"

Again, Tommy shared a glance with Carol, wondering just how badly Steve was hurt. 

Clearing her throat, Carol repeated Tommy. "We came to check on you. No one's seen you and…"

They were worried. That's what she wanted to say. But they weren't sure how Steve would take that. Or if he would even believe them.

But what else could they possibly say?

Tommy rested his other hand on top of Steve’s. “We wanted to make sure you were okay.”

Steve was staring again. But this time it was at them. Tommy could tell he was trying to decide if he could trust himself. If he could truth _them_. If he could possibly reconcile with the fact that the people who used to be his closest friends, who cut ties with him, are now back in his life.

“How did you know I was in trouble?”

Steve didn’t tell them what kind of trouble. He didn’t have to. Maybe they didn’t know all the details, but Tommy was pretty confident that someone who slept in a bathtub wasn’t in a happy solid mind space.

“Call it a gut feeling.” Tommy mumbled.

“...feeling...” Steve murmured to himself, staring at his own hand held between Tommy’s.

It happened slowly. Like how a tree falls.

At first, Steve tilted forward. 

Then he was leaning. 

And before Tommy had a chance to move or catch him, Steve head slumped forward until it fell against his chest.

Tommy looked over Steve’s head at Carol, and she was staring back at him.

“...Steve?” Carol started, reaching a hand out to rub their friends back.

“I’m sorry.”

It was such a soft sound, they almost missed it.

“What did you say?” Tommy looked down, trying to get Steve to look at them. But his features remained obscured by his thick brown hair.

“I’m sorry.” Steve repeated, a little stronger this time. “I’m sorry I never called you guys. I’m sorry I yelled. I’m sorry-”

“‘We’re sorry too Steve.” Carol cut him off. The sound of his sad weak voice nearly broke their hearts. “We should have reached out.”

“And shouldn’t have let some girl get in the way of our friendship.” Tommy added. “We’re sorry.”

Steve leaned back and stared at the two of them.

“We were all kinda dumb, huh?”

Tommy smiled with a wince. “And it looks like we haven’t quite stopped either.” 

He gestured toward Steve’s face. “What happened?”

The weight that seemed like it had begun to rise from Steve’s frame fell again. They could see it in the tensing of his shoulders and the way his eyes seemed a little more strained. 

“It’s a long story.”

“We didn’t have any plans.” Tommy offered. 

But Steve shook his head. “I can’t-- I don’t really want to think about it right now.”

“Well,” Carol took hold of Steve’s hand. “It just so happens we’re really good at distractions.”

She rose to her feet, gently pulling Steve along with her.

“I saw those blankets in your living room. How about we order pizza and watch some of those old Cary Grant movies your mom was obsessed with. The one with the leopard was always your favorite.”

Steve smiled, and once again they could see his mood brighten. But then he looked down at himself.

“I should probably clean up first. I haven’t really showered since--”

“That’s fine! I’ll order the pizza, and by the time you’re done it should be here.” Carol cut Steve off before his mind could drift back to what happened at the mall. “Tommy? You wanna help him out?”

Tommy was just about to protest when Steve spoke up with a tired smile.

“I’m not completely helpless. I think I can handle a shower.”

“Okay, but if you need anything just shout.” Carol nodded, shooting Tommy a look that could only mean, _watch him_.

Tommy waited outside Steve’s bathroom, listening for any sounds of distress while his friend took a nice hot shower.

When Steve emerged, dressed in some clean sweatpants and a thin baggy hoodie, the two boys stared at each other a moment. Remnants of old hurts still lingering.

“I am sorry.” Tommy said, as Steve plucked at a non-existent thread on the hem of his hoodie.

“I missed you.” Steve responded. “Not all the stuff we did, because we _were_ assholes, but I missed you two a lot.”

Tommy smiled and pulled Steve into a tight hug. “Me too buddy.”

The sound of the doorbell and pizza being delivered reminded everyone just how hungry they were. Carol had ordered two, just so they had some to snack on later, which turned out to be the right call considering the three of them devoured the first pizza before the opening credits of their movie had finished. 

The three of them lay tangled together, Steve smushed between Tommy and Carol, all quietly humming along to Katharine Hepburn crooning _I Can’t Give You Anything but Love_, _Baby_. And it felt like for the first time in over a year, things were right in the world again. 

Carol had begun to sing along under her breath, absent-mindedly running her fingers through Steve’s hair with one leg strewn over his lap as he rested his head on Tommy’s shoulder.

Tommy smiled at the sight. It was perfect. And Tommy wished he could hold and protect them like this for the rest of their lives.

However, if the last couple years had taught them anything, it was that nothing was for certain. He still wasn’t one-hundred-percent sure what happened at Starcourt, or how Steve got the bruises on his face or the haunted look in his eyes whenever he’d stare at shadows for too long.

But Tommy had made a promise to himself a long time ago that he was going to take care of them forever. Even when they’d lost one another, and it felt like Steve had run away for good, they found each other. 

And Tommy would make sure they kept doing it. Again and again, because you don’t give up on someone who loved you as much as Steve, Tommy, and Carol loved each other.

As Hepburn’s warbled voice echoed around the room, Tommy found himself drifting to sleep. He readjusted, tucking on arm behind Carol while the other rested on one of Steve’s knees.

He wanted to hold onto them forever.

But for tonight, this was enough. 

**Author's Note:**

> This was a request made by pitterpatterletsgetat-er (thank you so much for your patience).
> 
> Reviews are cherished.


End file.
